The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Hopper (DDG 70), equipped with the Aegis integrated weapons system, launches a RIM-161 Standard Missile (SM) 3 Block IA during exercise Stellar Avenger while under way in the Pacific Ocean July 30, 2009. The missile successfully intercepted a sub-scale, short-range, ballistic missile that was launched from the Kauai Test Facility, Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands in Kauai, Hawaii. The exercise is the 19th successful intercept of 23 at-sea firings using the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program, including the destruction of a malfunctioning satellite above the earth’s atmosphere in February 2008. (DoD photo courtesy of U.S. Navy/Released)